On Saturday Martin, Julie, and I went to the Barnes Foundation to look at the art and stroll the grounds. For those of you who aren't in the Philly area the Barnes Foundation is an Arboretum school, an art school, and a museum with one of the largest collections of Impressionist paintings in the world, and all of this in a little suburb of Philly.

I took lots of pictures of flowers and things.

I, being a sensible fellow, decided on getting the audio tour (as did Julie). I set it to guide me through the highlights of the collection, since this was my first time and I wanted to see the 'good stuff.' All was fine while I was on the first floor. I enjoyed my time looking at priceless art and having art snobs whisper in my ear telling me all about what the hell I was looking at.

However, on the second floor I met my Barnes Foundation nemesis. She stood five foot nothing, with a shock of white hair. She seemed to be in her late 70's and she also had the telltale headphones of the audio tour on her wizened ears. We were both looking at the same, numbered artwork, so it was obvious that we were both doing the highlight tour.

I know what you're thinking, this a nemesis does not make. Keep reading.

I enter the room and look at the painting the audio tour is whispering to me about, and my nemesis is seated on a bench looking at the same painting. After a minute or two she gets up and shuffles to the next gallery. Obviously she was ahead of me in the tour and was off to the next 'stop.'

The audio tour tells me to make my way to the next painting, and I oblige. Lo and behold there is my nemesis looking at the same painting I am about to enjoy. She looks at me and then back to the painting. After a minute she leaves the room and goes into the next.

'Hmm', I thought, 'that's odd. Maybe this section is short.' I finish listening to the commentary and it was definitely longer than the length of time she stayed in the room. 'This painting might not have done it for her.'

I go into the next room, and there she is in her blue track suit. As soon as she sees me enter the room, she leaves. Now I know for certain that this lady is my Barnes Foundation nemesis. She just doesn't want to be in the same room as me. I finish up in the room and go to the next. She sees me, and leaves. She is missing HUGE parts of the tour at this point, just trying to avoid me.

Soon I start walking a little more briskly than my nemesis is able to on her withered limbs, and I make sure that I am standing next to her in each of the rooms before she has a chance to make her elderly retreat.

She finally just goes down to the first floor and leaves the second floor to me. I am victorious!

The moral of the story? Old ladies don't like fat guys in loud shirts, I suppose.

Other than that, the place was marvelous as was the company of Martin and Julie.

Michael Buffington thinks so. I was firmly in the camp of Ruby on Rails being a fad (with a dash of Ajax thrown in to make everything... cooler) but it seems I should do some research or something (but I'm a blogger! We just make crap up, like NY Times reporters. Ooooh, snap. No, I didn't! Yes, yes I did!).

The biggest surprise in the whole post was this:

I'm used to rapid application building with ColdFusion, but Rails is more rapid, which was a surprise.

Now, if you didn't understand any of that post, feel free to ignore it.

Uncrate is, to quote the website:

Uncrate is a web magazine for guys who love stuff. Our team finds the best gadgets, clothes, cars and more so you can blow your rent money easier.

I'm a guy, and I love gadgets, so of course I subscribed. However, in addition to tickling my interest Larry Angell is involved with Uncrate, and he is a stand up dude so I suggest you all subscribe to Uncrate.

Do it for Uncle Scott.

I thought I would take a quick break from the wonderful world of CFC's and post to good old Blankbaby.

Today seems to be the day that I get in touch with people with my storied past at Lehigh (though most of the stories are boring).  It seems that Owen and Thad are going to be visiting me tomorrow, you might remember that I went to see Owen's pad last summer, so we will be on the prowl.  Ladies of Philadelphia, beware!

Also today, out of the blue, Elisa emailed me with several pictures of sleeping kittens and babies because 'they reminded her of me.'  I didn't know how to take that but she explained (via IM) that I like kittens and I like sleeping, and babies like to sleep... so it all makes sense.  I slowly nodded and backed away, which effectively ended our IM conversation.  Elisa then told me that Emily was getting married this weekend.  Why would I care about this?  Well, Emily is a fellow English major from Lehigh (in fact Elisa, Emily, Thad, Owen, and I all went to Lehigh, hence the pithy image and title for this post), and we are friends.  However, it soon became clear to me that I wasn't invited to the wedding since it was happening this weekend and I hadn't received an invite.  It could be that this wedding was planned at the last minute and Uncle Scott's invitation got lost in the hustle (that is going to be the title of my autobiography, 'Scott McNulty: Lost in the Hustle').

Or, perhaps, knowing how good I look in my suit Emily didn't want to share the spotlight with a young, virile, goodlooking, single guy at her wedding.

Everyone in Philly is talking about one thing, the recent launch of Blankbaby Media.

No, that doesn't sound right... oh yeah, Live8.

Albert will be there covering it for Philly Future with press credentials and everything!  Pretty awesome.  I was going to apply for a press pass, but there were lots of steps involved and I just didn't feel like doing it.

Philly Future is pulling out all the stops and is trying to be the one stop shop for Live8 Philly news, there is even a special Live8 page.  I may be posting on there with my thoughts on the crowds, the bands, and the general vibe (I don't think I will like any of it).

Jason Calacanis, my boss at Weblogs, Inc, is importing himself and 3 other bloggers into Philly, taking advantage of 4 press passes, to cover Live8 over at Live8Insider.  I have offered up my services to Jason, and he has asked me to take pictures of the crowd, so I'll take some pictures of the expected 1 million person strong crowd.  Look for them on Live8Insider at some point.  It'll be fun to meet some other WINS folk though, if I actually get a chance to meet them (there will be a million freakin' people there!  And the 4 WINS people will be backstage so chances are slim I'm thinking).

Yes, I have have a higher resolution version if you would like to trade them with your friends.

I know folks just can't get enough of me from Blankbaby, TUAW, and Philly Future.  The people demand more Scott, and I aim to please.

I am happy to announce that over the weekend I started yet another blog in the ever expanding Blankbaby Media empire.  The new blog is taking advantage of the fact that I have owned blankbaby.com for the last several years, but have never done anything with it.

I installed Wordpress (which took less than 5 minutes) and Blankbaby Media was born!  Think of it as a central hub for all of my online endeavors as well as the place where Blankbaby Radio will live (currently there is just one episode but I plan to remedy that situation).  I will also be parking any movies, creative writing bits, and other media type stuff over there.

I may even start writing a novel on Blankbaby Media, in the open!  However, I will most likley not do that.

This is just the beginning folks.  I also really want to start up a group blog of some kind, but I'm not sure what it would cover. I have been toying with a 'Friends of Blankbaby' blog, but that seems a little too self centered.  And what if no one posted to it?

I would be crushed.

Anyway, please introduce yourself to Blankbaby Media.  He's a little shy at the moment, but soon he shall have lots to share.

America has spoken and Ronald Reagan is the Greatest American ever. I know some people would be upset with that but if you consider the list of 100 great Americans you could vote from included Dr. Phil and Michael Jackson, it could have been a lot worse.

Here are the top 5 as ranked by our fellow Americans:

1. Ronald Reagan
2. Abraham Lincoln
3. Martin Luther King, Jr.
4. George Washington
5. Ben Franklin

I think it is clear that Franklin should have been number one, but what can you do?

Who do you think deserves the title 'the Greatest American'?

At least it is according to Google Image Search. This is the top image I just got when I searched for RSS.

I'll say this, that sure as hell doesn't look like Dave Winer (or even Adam Curry!).

Why wasn't I informed of this earlier?

Darn it, all the cool stuff happens without me knowing about it.

I just realized that Neil Diamond is still coming to Philadelphia. I wonder if the concert is sold out, or if I can get one, sad, lonely ticket for myself.

However, going to a Neil Diamond concert by yourself seems to be the height of pathetic, so I probably won't be going.

Neil, sing a chorus of Caroline for me!

C.K. tagged me with the legendary 'Musical Baton'. Emily beat him to it though, so if you want to take a walk down memory lane feel free to read my Musical Baton entry.

A fun fact? C.K. was listening to 'If I had a hammer' as sung by Leonard Nimoy, which I also own, and he lists a Pixies song in his 'important song' list, and I was lucky enough to have attended a concert during the Pixies Reunion tour.

Now, some bloggers hate memes and refuse to participate for a variety of reasons. I, however, am not one of those bloggers. I look at them as writing exercises and try to have fun with them, however, I won't do the same one twice in a short amount of time. Fear not, my musical tastes haven't changed.

I was just watching the finale of The Next Food Network Star, the Food Network's reality show were one lucky contestant gets their own show. I have been watching the show for the last couple of weeks thanks to the magic of Comcast's DVR, and it has been great.

So, I digitally recorded the finale. Super cool, yes?

No.

As they were just about the announce the winner I got the 'end of recording dialogue.' Making matters worse is that the show ended 15 minutes ago, so I don't know who won!

What the hell?

Last night I caught the tail end of Bananas, a Woody Allen movie from his 'funny' period (his latest movies, not so funny). I really enjoyed the absurdist humor, so I thought I would share this quote with you.

Woody's character is being tried for various crimes against the government to which he says:

I object, your honor! This trial is a travesty. It's a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham.

Oh, Woody, please be funny again!

Ahh the staff retreat.

Every time I visit News.com (a tech news website) I am rewarded with up to date tech news, however, I am also taunted. I type in www.news.com into my browser and I arrive at the page, but right before the main site loads I am redirected to www.news.com.com.

This has been happening forever, and I for one am sick of it. What the hell is up with that, News.com, if that is your real name? Or, to make that sentence easier for you to understand: What the hell is up with that,, News.com.com,, if that is your real name??

Someone had better tell me the reason this keeps happening or else I shall crush CNET with my internet might. I'm a thought-shaper, damn it!

The camera I want is the Casio EX-Z750 digital camera which is part of Casio's excellent Exilim series of cameras. I have a 3.2 megapixel Exilim at the moment and I love it. However, there are a few things that are quite frustrating about it, but according to Mike Davidson the EX-Z750 has all the things that I like and none of the things I don't care for.

I did just get a new job and I think I might be getting myself a little present to celebrate.

I like presents.

Look, a guide to Choosing a Girlfriend and I found it on the internet. Who woulda thunk it?

I think I would go with the 'Perfect Girlfriend' even though I'm not good enough for her. It'll take her awhile to figure that out, and until that happens I'm 'golden' as the kids say.

Found via book of joe.

That's funny, though.

Must. Apply. For. Job. At. Google. Posthaste.

Need I say more?

You all know that Frat Boy "A" won a super cool new iPod Shuffle thanks to this contest. When I first thought of giving away an iPod shuffle I was certain that it was amongst the best ideas I had ever had. Then I slowly realized that I had just entered Blankbaby into a contest that Jeremy at Ensight was running and the prize for that contest? You guessed it; an iPod Shuffle. So it looks like I stole the idea from him, however, if I win his contest that means that there will be another Blankbaby contest (since I don't need an iPod shuffle).

I'm only thinking of you, dear readers.

I'm off to email Frat Boy 'A' to get his mailing address so I can send him the iPod Shuffle that is sitting next to me.

Ahh, but it is Sunday! Hurrah for the Sabbath (or the day after the Sabbath for the Jews out there).

This weekend has possibly been the most unproductive time in my entire life. The only thing I did (and this was with in the last 3 hours) is laundry. I haven't left my building all weekend. I wonder when I became a shut in. Soon I will be surrounded by glass jars full of urine (mostly my own if I'm lucky).

Such is the life of a misunderstood genius, or at least a well understood jackass.

Why hasn't anyone told me that there is Wifi in Rittenhouse?

Why?!

Now I know, I will be blogging like a mad man in the outdoors.

Sarcasmo blogged about it and so I thought I would give it a whirl.

What is it? Why, a short short story of course! Exactly 100 words with no repeating any words (that the tricky part).

Here's my stab at it:

My grandfather was a dwarf. Little people, that's what they're called now, but back then people knew him as Lil' Chauncy.

Gramps would dance to and fro whistling for nickels plus the odd cup of hot chowder on our street. No one expected growth spurts.

1924: 3'2"

1925: 7'3"

'Weeds,' exclaimed Grandma, 'grow less with more.'

She never really made sense, but we loved her just like Towering Chaunce (new measurements, revamped nickname. That's how things were done in those days).

'Two peas in different pods,' folks sighed whilst they waltzed by awkwardly (Grammie reached TC's knee), smiling like teenagers.

I don't think it is all that great so I won't be submitting it, but it was fun to write.